The requirements to be met by combustion engines, in particular in motor vehicles, are increasing due to the statutory regulations concerning pollutant emissions and because of customer wishes with regard to reliability, the efficient use of resources, in particular of fuel, and minimal maintenance costs. These requirements can only be met, if any malfunctions of vehicle components are reliably and accurately recognized and recorded, so that malfunctions can be compensated for or a repair of the defective vehicle components can be arranged. To this end, vehicle components, in particular all vehicle components pertinent to exhaust gas, such as, for example, a catalytic converter, a lambda sensor, a fuel system and a cooling system, are monitored. In particular, for the US American market, checking that temperature values of a coolant temperature sensor constantly remain within a given temperature range is specified for vehicles from the model year 2006 onwards, as incorrect coolant temperature sensor temperature values can result in increased raw emissions from the combustion engine, that is emissions without any exhaust treatment. The monitoring measures should ensure a low-polluting operation and maintain driving safety. This also means that when errors occur, it is ensured that the combustion engine switches to emergency operation and consequential damage can be avoided. If necessary the driver of the motor vehicle is informed of the malfunction, so that the driver can arrange a check and/or repair in a workshop. A control device of the combustion engine stores information about the errors that have occurred, such as, for example, the type of error, the location of the error and if necessary the operating conditions under which the malfunction occurred. This information can be evaluated in a workshop and in this way help in the repair work.